[PRCo] Re: Redd's Beach and Westside Transit

[ROBERT R ROCKWELL]

I have a picture of Mr Berryman if someone needs it. He was a director at the bank (now Citizen's). Westside offices were therein also. It was Berryman's Beach as Tom stated. I don't know of the Nelson connection at all.  It was Redd's when I was a kid. The Westside Roadbed is in pretty good shape from the top of the 481 hill above the beach  to a short distance below the beach where it was eaten by I-70. Just below the car lot at the top of hill it crossed under what is now 481. If you look carefully behind the carlot you will see a ditch that  has been greatly reduced in width and depth  since it carried the Westside track toward Charleroi. 


The Berryman Department store that Tom referred to was the second one. The first one was on McKean just about in front of the switch that created the short span of double track on PRws crossing 5th street. Approximately opposite the restored PALACE THEATER front now a Cricket store.
 
> From: trams2 at comcast.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Redd's Beach and Westside Transit
> Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 09:17:59 -0500
> 
> It's still going strong. This pool had the coldest water of all of them we
> went to in the '50s, and its temperature probably hasn't changed, since it
> is fed by a spring. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Bob
> Rathke
> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 9:25 PM
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Redd's Beach and Westside Transit
> 
> Is Mineral Beach still there? We sometimes went there we lived in Bethel
> Park - it was a short drive on Rt. 88.
> 
> The only thing I didn't like about Mineral Beach was that they prohibited
> patrons from wearing prescription eyeglasses...even if the lenses were
> plastic.
> 
> Bob 1/1/10
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry "Matt" Matsick" <jerry.matsick at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 01, 2010 7:02 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Redd's Beach and Westside Transit
> 
> 
> >
> > Rich - in the l950s as a teenager from Donora many of us, plus each 
> > valley  High School layed claim to certain grass areas at Redd's Beach, 
> > it was the in place to go along with Mineral Beach just north of 
> > Monongahela on Rt 88
> > Jerry Matsick
> >
> > Jacksonville
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Rich Rockwell" <rrockwell at comcast.net>
> > To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> > Sent: Friday, January 1, 2010 5:32:19 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> > Subject: [PRCo] Redd's Beach and Westside Transit
> >
> > Does anybody on this list know anything about the history of Redd's Beach
> > (now Pine Cove Swim Club) on Rt 481 (Charleroi area) near exit 35 on I-70?
> > Â
> >
> > I was contacted by Judy Florian who is compiling information about the
> > history of Washington County
> > [http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~florian/
> >
> > ] and is looking for information about the owner prior to Redd.
> >
> > Â
> >
> > She contacted me because of the reminiscence of Tom Phillips I have on my
> > web site [http://eldorapark.com/Charleroi_Memories_PTM_%204-20-02.htm] in
> > which Tom said (in reference to the Berryman Building in Charleroi that
> > housed Montgomery Wards from the 30's to the 60's) "John Berryman, the
> > owner, was not only one of the principal stockholders of Westside Transit
> > and Webster, Monessen, Belle Vernon, and Fayette City Railway Company but
> > also the builder of Berryman's Beach, a traffic generator, located on the
> > trolley line about 3 miles southwest of Charleroi. The park was sold after
> > Mr. Berryman's death in the mid-1930's and renamed Redd's Beach. Again
> > changing hands and now named Pine Cove Beach Club."
> >
> > Â
> >
> > Florian's research on Redd's Beach has a Sam Nelson building the pool 
> > called
> > Nelson's Bathing Beach...later just Nelson's Beach. Â He sold to Sam Redd
> > about 1935, and she finds no mention of Berryman owning the site. Â 
> > Articles
> > from the pool's opening in 1927 point out easy access by auto, street car,
> > or omnibus.
> >
> > Â
> >
> > If anybody has any information about this, let me know, and I'll pass it 
> > on
> > to her.
> >
> > Â
> >
> > Rich Rockwell
> >
> > Â Â
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>